Apple Mulls Acquiring Aravind Srinivas-Led AI Startup Perplexity: Report

Apple executives are reportedly considering a bid for the Aravind Srinivas-led AI startup Perplexity, a move that could significantly impact the tech giant's future in artificial intelligence and internet search.

While discussions are in the early stages and may not lead to an offer, Adrian Perica, Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions, Eddy Cue, services chief, and other top AI decision-makers in the company have held internal talks about a potential bid for Perplexity, according to a Bloomberg report.

This comes as Perplexity recently rolled out AI video generation with "Ask Perplexity" on X.

Big tech companies are aggressively investing in AI to enhance capabilities and meet the growing demand for AI-powered services, The Hindu reported.

Earlier this year, Meta Platforms also reportedly attempted to acquire Perplexity.

This integration could mark a significant shift away from Apple's long-standing partnership with Alphabet's Google, especially given the US Justice Department's proposed remedies to break up Google's dominance in online search.

Traditional search engines like Google still hold the majority market share, but AI-powered options such as Perplexity and ChatGPT are rapidly gaining prominence and user adoption, particularly among younger generations.

Perplexity, an Nvidia-backed startup, offers AI search tools that provide information summaries, similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.

The company recently completed a funding round valuing it at $14 billion, which would make a deal of similar value Apple's largest acquisition to date.